Hosam KatanYalla HabibiLiving with War in Aleppo

Yalla Habibi – Living with War in Aleppo gives recognition to people in Eastern Aleppo who have continued their everyday lives with resilience and inventiveness amidst perilous circumstances. The pictures from Hosam Katan’s hometown, taken between 2013 and 2015, capture moments of the conflicting and contrasting experiences and emotions of these people. Anger, joy, grieve, fear, adventurousness, desperation, determination, solidarity, defiance, fatigue, excitement – having to live with war all of these emotions can change in an instant. The book shows people balancing the horrors of war with a sense of normalcy and trying to retain their dignity.Although the news coverage of the conflict in Syria, and especially from Aleppo, has waned, it is important to keep up the dialog because the conflict is far from being over. »Yalla Habibi (Come on my dear)!« as people would say in Arabic.

The book is dedicated to to the German photographer Anja Niedringhaus, who died in 2014.

Hosam Katan (born in Aleppo 1994) started working as a photojournalist for Aleppo Media Center from October 2012. Between 2013 and 2015, he covered the conflict in Aleppo as a freelance photographer for Reuters as well. His pictures have been published in numerous international magazines. He is currently studying photojournalism at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover. The awards he has received include the Ian Parry Special Award 2014 and the Ian Parry Award 2015, the annual Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest 2015, the grand price at the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2015, the Nannen Preis 2016, a Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Special Prize for Photography 2016, the PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris 2017, and the Felix Schoeller Photo Award 2017. He was nominated for the the Bayeux-Calvados Award for war correspondents 2016, and is shortlisted for the Meitar Photo Award 2017.